 Welcome to Hope Today. We're so glad that you're with us. I'm Anna and I'm joined by the amazing Angela and Sydney. And Sydney, we have a guest that we are fired up about today. We surely are, you know, coming up on Hope Today, uncovering the demonic culprit, trying to sabotage and hinder God's destiny for your life. And in a moment, you're gonna meet Andrew Tao and he's going to unmask a spiritual stronghold that's been creeping its way and attacking believers. You don't wanna miss our conversation with Andrew on breaking the spirit of Delilah. You know, Angela, I love these conversations because it is time for deliverance and to understand the things that are holding us back, that are keeping us back from walking into all that God has called us to be. Yeah, it's important for the bride to arise in her rightful position. You know, as believers, we are those who have dominion and authority in this realm. But a lot of what we look around and see, it is believers who feel weak need and are crouching behind and lurking in the shadows. But bride, we must arise, Anna. That's right. I keep talking about Isaiah 52 because that's where the Lord keeps taking me that the Israelites were in captivity in Babylon and they're crying out for the Lord, like God save us, rescue us, set us free. And he tells them to awaken and get up to clothe their mind and strength to take off the chains that are around their neck to shake that dust off because they have been redeemed. And you, my friend, are the redeemed child of God. Like Angela was saying, you have authority in Christ and it is the season for the church to arise because there is work to be done. And it's so important that we understand our identity in Christ and knowing who we are because a lot of times if we don't know who what God says about us, then we can go into this trap, into that trap. And so it's so important in this hour, in this season, like I know a lot of people are like, I don't wanna watch the news and I don't wanna know what's going on, but we have to understand the signs of the time. We have to be like the sons of Issachar, discerning what's going on, discerning what's happening because if we don't understand the light and the love and the power that is in us through Jesus Christ, then who knows what's gonna happen in the world? So we are called for such a time as this. And so that's why we love On Hope today to bring you these conversations and talk about these topics to equip you to all that you are called to be. And we're gonna go there right now. Andrew Tao is an emerging prophetic voice for this generation. And he is the lead pastor of Ram Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In his book, Breaking the Spirit of Delilah, Assessing God's Power to Topple Ancient Strongholds, Andrew exposes the spirits that threatening to lead you down a path of destruction and why it's time for believers to wake up like never before. Andrew, we are so glad to have you on Hope today. Well, I am thrilled to be with you. I'm excited about what God is doing today. This is a great hour. This is the time for the church to awaken. You were mentioning the things that are on the news and the things that we're hearing. Absolutely, the enemy is raging because he knows that God's hour is at hand. And this is the time for the church to arise. This is our moment to get up and take back the ground that the enemy has taken. So I'm thrilled to be with you guys today. Well, we're so thrilled to have you with us, Andrew. And just can you share for a moment how you became so passionate about helping believers understand these demonic strongholds that are trying to hold us back. Can you tell us a little bit of your story? Well, you know, I was in a time of prayer and I was just seeking the Lord. And he spoke to me about a spirit. It's an ancient spirit that has gained momentum in the last few years, really. It's been around forever, but it's really gained momentum. And it's a slumbering spirit. It's a spirit that has put the church to sleep and the Lord began to speak to me in this time of prayer. And he said, Andrew, Paul warned Timothy that the days were coming, that the church would have a form of godliness but denied the power thereof. They would want to look religious, but they didn't want the power of God. They didn't want the gifts of the spirit. They didn't want any of that, you know, that would be out there. They just wanted to have a one-hour feel-good service. But I believe that this hour, the spirit that would lull us to sleep or the spirit that would put us in just a slumber is breaking. And I believe today on this program, that spirit is breaking over your viewers today. I believe God is sending a call, a trumpet, a prophetic call to say, wake up. Wake up from your slumber. Wake up from spiritual compromise. The hour is here. This is the moment that the church gets up from their slumber. And so that's why I'm so passionate about this book. I'm so passionate about exposing this spirit because that's what Delilah did. She was a real woman in the book of Judges but the spirit behind that woman to bring down God's champions. When God began to speak this to me, I said, Lord, I'm not Samson. I'm not killing Philistines left or right. You know, why would this spirit be after me? And you may be asking yourself too, why would the Delilah spirit be after me? It's a spirit of slumber. It's a spirit of compromise. And God spoke to me and he said, you may not be Samson, but you're my champion. You're my warrior. And God says that to you today. You are God's champion and you are called for such a time as this. That's why that spirit is after you. That's why the enemy wants to put you to sleep. For greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So that spirit is after you. You may not even realize that you're under attack but that's why it's come to steal your passion. It's come to put you to sleep but we are going to agree with you today that it breaks in Jesus' name. Yes, it is time for it to break in Jesus' name. And Andrew, can you just break down what are some of the symptoms? What are some of the signs that we are being attacked by the spirit of Delilah? Well, you know, the number one sign or symptom as I like to call them is a loss of desire for the things of God. Have you ever gone through a time where it's like, you know, just your passion for God. I was talking about this yesterday in our service here at Ramp Church, Chattanooga. We've been doing a series on the fire of God. And I said, you know, God is saying it's time for us to get off the roller coaster of, you know, one moment we're ready to run through a troop and leap over a wall. We're just running after the things of God. We're burning in pursuit of God and then life happens. Life happens to everybody. It rains on the just and it rains on the unjust. So then life happens and it feels like we're on a spiritual low. It doesn't, we don't want to go to church. We don't want to pray. We don't want to seek God. We're like, you know, I'm just dealing with this when everything comes together, when everything is just coming together just right, then I'll come back to church. I'll get back into my prayer life. I'll get back into my study life. That is the spirit of Delilah. That's what she did is she gave Samson a false comfort. She gave him just a slumbering. It's based really on that scripture that says, she made him, it's verse 19 in Judges chapter 16. It says, and she made him sleep upon her knees. She made him to sleep upon her knees. And see, that's what the enemy is doing. He wants us to sleep upon the lap of Delilah. But God is saying, oh, wake up church. This is your finest hour. We've got to get off the rollercoaster of one moment being on fire for God and the next minute being down. I believe it's time to burn with passion to where we are the fire on the altar of our life never burns out. He said, I want the fire of God to burn. Jesus said, oh, I love the words of Jesus. Jesus said, oh, I've come to set a fire on the earth. How I wish it was blazing in you right now. I'm telling you, it is time for us to blaze for Jesus. It is time for us to be on fire, not just one moment, not when we just come to church on Sunday morning. It's time for us to be in constant pursuit and constant fire, stoking that blaze in our lives. Fassa, Andrew, you are so on fire and I know your fire is so contagious and our viewers can feel it. Let's talk for a moment because I know this is so deep in your spirit about the fire of God and that how sometimes we can grow cold to the fire. You mentioned that in your book. Can you talk to us about how do we stoke those fires? How do we continue to burn in this hour and in this season? Well, I love that chapter in the book. I'm glad you asked me about it. It's one of my favorite chapters because I believe many of us sometimes, we go through times and situations that we're willing to get around other people's fire and we get warm. We come to church on Sunday morning and we're like warming by the fire. Yeah, you burn for Jesus and I'll come and get my fix. But inside we're cold. We're not moved by the fire of God. We're not burning for God. I'm telling you, it is time for us to burn for God. Fire spreads. So whenever, if we want to change this generation, then we've got to start burning with the hunger and with the pursuit of God. We've got to start burning with His presence. If we want to see revival in our families, if we want to see revival in our churches, if we want to see awakening to this generation, then it's going to require that the church, the church, God's bride, begin off the playground of compromise and start getting on fire and burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit. And when we get around other people, our fire begins to spread. But the problem, see, I can talk about problems because I have the solution. I hate when people talk about problems and they don't have the solution to the problem. We have the problem of letting our fire die out and we strip ourselves from the armor and we get around the world and we look like the world. We sound like the world. We do the same things that the world does. And then we come back to church or get around Godly people and we put back on the armor real quick and we warm ourselves by other people's fire. He's saying, no, I want to fill you with a fresh fire. I want you to begin to blaze with the power of the Holy Ghost. I want you to begin to get into proximity of the fire. In fact, the Holy Spirit says, I want to fill you with fire. So those of you watching this broadcast, I want to tell you today, God wants to fill you with fresh fire. He wants you to begin to burn. He wants you to begin to have a zeal for him. He wants you to be contagious and let that fire begin to spread to your family, spread to your church, spread to your workplace. Wherever you go, that fire ought to be burning inside of you. When you get around the world, the greatest compliment you could ever have is when you go into a place and people feel that something's different about you. They begin to sense something is different about you. In fact, they don't want to tell those same jokes. They don't want to do the things that they're doing because they feel the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and not in a condemning way, not to where you're just being judgmental and you're just telling them all, no, just because of the fire that you carry. One of the greatest compliments I ever received one time I went to meet with an individual, they were a minister and I knew that they had gotten into sin and I knew that they had gotten into compromise and I went to go meet with them at this restaurant and I'll never forget the table that we were sitting at and we had just sat down at the table and I'm looking at the menu, just asking them how they're doing. I hadn't said anything about scripture, anything about their life, anything at all. But as soon as I sat down, I'm just saying, what are you gonna have? And they said, quit judging me. And I said, I'm looking at the menu. I, they said, I can sense that you're judging me. No, what they sensed was the fire of God. What they sensed was the presence of God and there was sin in their life. And so they started feeling conviction. What we carry as believers is powerful. It's the Holy Spirit. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so it ought to affect change wherever we go. We shouldn't, you know, one day blaze for God and the next day be cold. And that's what the spirit of Delilah does is it's come to snuff out your fire. It's come to steal your passion for God. It's come to bring you in the descent of compromise. This spirit is after your vision. This spirit is after your destiny. That's why I had to write this book because God is saying, I want to break that spirit over my people. It will not have your vision. The enemy will not steal your destiny. I'm prophesying to you right now. The enemy will not steal your destiny. He will not steal your vision, but you are going to rise up man and woman of God. You're gonna rise up champion of the living God. This is your hour. This is your moment. You are the warrior bride. You are filled with the power of God. Let a fresh fire begin to burn in you right now in Jesus' name. That is so powerful, Angie. And if you are responding to that right now, we just want to encourage you to give a call to our prayer line at 888-665-4483 because now we know as the time that God wants to get that draws. God wants to put you through that refining process that you can rise up and be all that you were called to be. And Angie, I love what you wrote in your book. You said, one of the quotes is, the enemy's plan is exasperate you until you give up and surrender to the enemy's evil plot. And I also like what you said about the spirit of Delilah. The spirit of Delilah gnaws, keeps biting at believers until they are weak and they surrender. So can you take a moment just to speak to that because I truly believe there's so many of us that are being bombarded, so many of us that are feeling like there's attacks happening at every side, but can you take a moment and speak to that person right now that feels like they have just literally like the arrows are by day and by night. The fire has just been like non-stop. Can you speak to that person that is under it right now? Absolutely, you know, I just released a word, a prophetic word called the Lord of the Fire-Dipped Arrows because I love it how it reads in the Passion because many times the enemy begins to send fiery darts. The word describes it as fiery darts. And so he's sending attacks at us left and right and I call them shadow man attacks because the Lord began to prophesy that word to me that out of the shadows you're feeling attacks. You don't even know where they're coming from because he's concealed himself. And so he's sending these attacks left and right because the enemy is defeated. He's defeated, but what he does is he begins to send things left and right, front and back to where you feel overwhelmed to where you just wanna forfeit. Have you ever felt like that? Many of you may feel like that today. You've been under attack and you think, I can't take one more thing. I just can't take one more situation. You feel overwhelmed and you think, Lord, I give up. You don't know how many times I've said to the Lord, I give up, I can't do this. I feel so overwhelmed with what I'm going through right now. And see the word says the enemies come to steal, to kill, to destroy. But then Jesus said, but I came to give you life and life more abundantly. So that means that he can't steal, kill, destroy because Jesus defeated the plan of the enemy. But what he can do is overwhelm us with circumstances, with attacks, with things that we're going through to where we just say, we forfeit, we give up, we surrender because we have gone through so much. Samson went through this with Delilah. She pressed him as what the Bible in Judges chapter 16. She pressed him daily with her words. She tormented him with situations until he gave up and finally compromised his walk with God. See, if you're under attack today, I want to give you good news. Your enemy is defeated. The devil is defeated and God has given you the victory because of what Jesus did on the cross. Child of God, you are victorious. Don't give up, don't give up. Many of you right now, you're sitting at the edge of breakthrough. Your next step is going to be a step into the greatest breakthrough that you have ever experienced in your life. That is why the enemy is raging in this hour. That is why he is coming at you from every direction because he knows you're at the point of breakthrough. He knows you're at the point of seeing that God is coming through where everything is going to come into alignment and that miracle, that promise that God has made you, that thing that God has spoken over your life. I want to tell you right now, it is coming forth today in Jesus' name. Jesus' name. Andrew, thank you so much for just what you've poured out in that prophetic word. And we just want to encourage our viewers, grab hold of that today. If you feel like you've been attacked on every side, know that God hears you, God sees you. And this is your sign for today that he is with you, that he is for you. And today we declare that the spirit of Delilah is broken off of you in the name of Jesus. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us today and just sharing all the prophetic insight and this revelation about breaking the spirit to Delilah. His book is called Breaking the Spirit to Delilah, Assessing God's Power to Topple Ancient Strongholds. Andrew, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you so much, it was my honor. You know, Anna and Angela, this is such a now and timely word for the body of Christ because so many people, Anna, are being under attack and under fire. But we know that there's a great hope in Jesus because he conquered it all. We can conquer it all as well. Absolutely. This is a season two to not only know your identity in Christ, but also to behold your Jesus because see, Jesus came gentle like a lamb. He was crucified on the cross and then taken to the grave. But then three days later, he had the power, the Holy Spirit raised him from the grave. Like our Jesus came back to life. Like that is power. There is no other God that has come back to life and that God is your God. And if you are feeling like you don't have any life in you, if you're feeling apathetic, if that fire has dissolved or gone out, friend, guess what? Jesus is ready to stir that fire back up, to send you out, to make you strong, to give you a new life and a new hope, have joy, peace and confidence. The one thing that I've been studying about are the weapons of our warfare. It talks about it in Ephesians that we're not just to sit by and have the devil knock us down day after day. Like the Bible says in Ephesians to stand firm, to strengthen ourselves with the strength of the Lord, to use the power of his word, to use prayer to break down those strongholds. I love how the scripture talks about our weapons are not carnal, but they have the power to tear down strongholds. And I see so many struggling with suicidal thoughts, anxiety, shame, anger, bitterness, and it's tearing them down. But we have weapons to rise up and stand strong again. Yeah, we truly are equipped with all the things that we need. In Jesus, we received all power and all authority to not only survive and overcome these personal things, but to truly take land, to take territory in this world that is full of darkness. Today's scripture actually calls us to just that. It comes from 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 6, and it says, so then let us not sleep in spiritual indifference as the rest of the world does, but let us keep wide awake, alert, and cautious, and let us be sober, self-controlled, calm, and wise. You know, when we talk about the spirit of Delilah and we talk about these things that attack us from the outside, it's aim is always to get us on the inside. Scripture reminds us that him whose mind is stayed on Christ, perfect peace is his. We must remain sober. We must not sleep in this world and let the comforts and convenience of culture rock us to sleep, but let us arise in who Christ called us to be. And as we arise, we will not just see our internal man freed, but from that same truth, the truth that sets me free will not allow me to show up in the world and bring a freedom to the creation that is groaning for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. Today, my friend, you are not just strong in your own circumstances personally. You're not just strong there. It goes well beyond that. Your freedom paves the way for the world's freedom. So today, awaken in every space. If you feel like you're comfortable in your Christianity, if you feel like, oh, I'm good, I know God, and I'm just going to my nine to five, and I'm just gonna live like this, there's more. God didn't create you just to exist. He created you to bring release to captives, to bring sight to those who don't see, to give the good news and the hope of Jesus to those who are poor, who are destitute, who are crying for a savior. You, my friend, are more than just a believer. You are a releaser. You are a deliverer and walk in the reality of that truth. Y'all are preaching over here this Monday morning. Y'all better get ahold of that. And one thing when you both were speaking that God was just even reminding me of like just two separate things. I think a lot of times Christianity, like that's, we're not, this isn't, we're not talking about religion. There is a big spirit of religion that's going on and all those things. We're not talking about that. We're talking about God. When Jesus came, it wasn't about religion. It was about revelation. He wanted to give us revelation. He wanted to speak to us so that we could just like destroy the things. We are called as the ecclesia. We are as the body of Christ. We are ambassadors that we are called to take dominion. We are called to have a kingdom takeover and we're called to demolish all these things that are happening. A lot of things that are going on in the world. I just want to say this might make some people mad, but we allowed it to happen because we are the church and we birth out things. But now that God is calling us. He's saying, I need my body. I need my bride to stand up in this moment. I need my body to heal. I need my body to deliver because what we are delivered from but what we are healed from then we are able to go out to the world and we can be the solution. We can be the dose of hope that they need. And the other thing that I just want to encourage you with today that I have seen over and over again in my life. There's a difference between Thanksgiving and there's a difference between praise. Thanksgiving is saying, I thank you God for this. I thank you God for that. But when you get a praise in your spirit, you are thanking and you are worshiping God for things that he has spoken that have not yet come to pass. Start praising God in the middle of your storm. Start praising God for the things that haven't happened yet. And it sends confusion in the camp of the enemy. So today, maybe after this program, I don't know the last time that you it's just been you and Jesus and you'll pray a closet or just had your altar, whatever it may be. But I encourage you and we challenge you today to get into the presence of God and don't leave until he speaks to you. Don't leave until there's that release. Don't leave until there's that revelation. That's what God is calling us to. Not just 10 minutes and 20 minutes and 30 minutes of prayer and trust me, I'm talking to myself today. Okay, that God is calling us to a new place where we just intercede, where we listen to him when we're like, okay, I'm gonna receive the revelation from you because when I receive revelation from you, God, it's wisdom and you give me the battle plan to fight my battles. That's what Jesus did. Jesus got away from everybody. He had to get quiet. He had to listen to his heavenly father for certain instructions to fight the battle. And that's what we want for you today. That we don't want you to be on the defense. No, it's kind of time to be on the offense. We win and that is the greatest news that we have today. Yeah, and I think too about the spirit of Delilah. Remember the story of Samson and Delilah. Delilah was a person just like you and me and the spirit was working through her to torment Samson and to bring him down from the purposes that God had for his life. There is this spiritual reality that is working around us and a lot of times they use people to knock you off balance to get you all out of whack. And so beware like, look, check out the people who are constantly stealing your peace or causing confusion or pushing past those boundaries. Like friend, know that our battle is not against flesh and blood. You are battling against a spirit. And so we have to use the weapons that God has given us that are spiritual weapons because we are fighting a spiritual battle. So stop letting that person tear you down, make you feel discouraged, make you angry, set you back a few notches. Friend, today is your day to awaken into who you are. That new, beautiful life that Jesus has given you through his sacrifice on the cross for you. You have a God who loves you, who has gone before you, who is behind you, who is all around you, and he is fighting for you. He is fighting your battles. He will bring justice. He will bring vengeance. You have the victory because your God has the victory. Remember if you need prayer, we are always here for you 888-665-4483. Thanks for being with us today on Hope Today. Have a great rest of your day. On tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how to exchange your pain for God's perfect love. Speaker and author Kia Stevens shares her story of overcoming father wounds and offers practical tools for overcoming insecurity, low self-esteem, and trouble connecting with God. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. 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